TL;DR: Edge error 1714 / 1612: “The older version of Microsoft Edge cannot be removed”

The fix only. No explanation, no diagnosis. Read the full article if any of this does not match what you are seeing.

1. Open PowerShell as administrator.
2. Find the orphan: the Edge product registration with a blank ProductVersion.

Get-ChildItem "HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Classes\Installer\Products" -Recurse -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue |
  Get-ItemProperty | Where-Object { $_.ProductName -like "*Edge*" } |
  Select-Object ProductName, ProductVersion, PSChildName

3. Prove it is orphaned. This must return nothing before you delete anything.

Get-ItemProperty "HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Installer\UserData\S-1-5-18\Products\<product code>\InstallProperties" -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue

If that returns data, it is a real install. Stop. Do not delete it.

4. Back up the key, then remove it and any matching Features entry.

reg export "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Classes\Installer\Products\<product code>" "$env:TEMP\EdgeOrphan_backup.reg"
Remove-Item "HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Classes\Installer\Products\<product code>" -Recurse -Force
Get-ChildItem "HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Classes\Installer\Features" -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue |
  Where-Object { $_.PSChildName -eq "<product code>" } | Remove-Item -Recurse -Force -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue

5. Verify: Test-Path on the key should be False, then force an Edge update check and watch for a new 11714.

& "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft\EdgeUpdate\MicrosoftEdgeUpdate.exe" /ua /installsource scheduler

6. Real confirmation is a quiet Application log after the next actual Edge version bump. Check again in a week.

"Cannot find path" from Remove-Item right after a successful read is normal here. Confirm with Test-Path before chasing it.

← Full article, with the diagnosis and the why